Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is the nation's most prominent Republican officeholder to publicly question whether Sarah Palin has the experience to serve as president.

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said Wednesday in an interview. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

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It's interesting that this is coming from a senior member on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. It's one thing if it were from an opposing party. It's another if it is from your own party. It's an even better thing if it is your own party, and someone who knows what they're talking about!

I find it funny that in the article, Palin cited her state's close proximity to Russia as "evidence" of her int'l experience. Even funnier (read: dumber) is that McCain/Palin's campaign responded by saying that Biden didn't think that Obama has the experience to do it.

Sounds like an after school playground fight, doesn't it?

Anywho, points went up again for my home state (they were in the dumps from when J.J. Exon co-wrote the Communications Decency Act in 1996), with Hagel gaining some of my respect alongside Bob Kerrey. He's like the Republican version of Lieberman.. except that Hagel actually makes sense.

Simple answer is no and with McCain being the oldest dude to run for president means guess who's running the country? a Hockey Mom. Obama with Biden's guidance seems a better choice plus when you add into the equation of what the republicans have done to the Clinton surplus and this country the past 8 years you have to be insane to vote for any republican after Bush jr.

“I’ll be ready. I have that confidence. I have that readiness and if you want specifics with specific policy or countries go ahead you can ask you can play stump the candidate if you want to,” Palin told more than 3,500 supporters at her first public town hall tonight in Western Michigan.

The GOP VP nominee proposed the game of “stump the candidate” during her final response of the night in a town hall session where she otherwise successfully tackled questions on energy, Iraq and her personal life. However, in response to the final question of the night, from a supporter to asked for “specific skills” Palin will offer when it comes to foreign policy, Palin instead repeated that she is ready for office and dared anyone curious to quiz her on international affairs.

While Palin’s offer of ’stump the candidate’ was partially meant in jest, media already eager to trip up the Alaska Governor on her perceived weakness now have even more incentive to—if ever accorded the opportunity to ask questions. The campaign of course has been extremely selective about opportunities to question Palin–she has only conducted two national interviews and has yet to take questions in a formal setting.

Still, one of the last candidates to dare the media was former presidential candidate Gary Hart who, when suspected of womanizing, famously told the media “follow me around... I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.” He lost that dare.

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We're waiting Mrs. Palin. We're all waiting to see how this goes. It does strike me as odd however, that she seems to often answer the question in the future, instead of in the present tense. WILL she be ready, or IS she ready? I have ZERO confidence if she continues to keep thinking of her preparedness as a "future" exercise and not a present reality.

^^ "Offering up a dare" encapsulates the McCain / Palin ticket perfectly. "What's the worst that could happen?" I dare you to find out if these two can manage to completely destroy the America I know and love...

A dare Palin may come to regrethttp://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/09/18/a-dare-palin-may-come-to-regret/
We're waiting Mrs. Palin. We're all waiting to see how this goes. It does strike me as odd however, that she seems to often answer the question in the future, instead of in the present tense. WILL she be ready, or IS she ready? I have ZERO confidence if she continues to keep thinking of her preparedness as a "future" exercise and not a present reality.

Five weeks ago, the St. Petersburg Times convened a group of Tampa Bay voters who were undecided about the presidential election. Their strong distrust of Barack Obama suggested it was a group ripe for John McCain to win over.

Not anymore. The group has swung dramatically, if unenthusiastically, toward Democrat Obama. Most of them this week cited the same reason: Sarah Palin.

It's interesting how much bickering and infighting there is in both parties this election... I'm well known for being quite pissed off at all the Democrats and lliberals in general who kept running around saying things like, "Obama is too much of a celebrity," "Obama isn't experienced enough..." long after it was clear that he would win the nomination.

If I was a Republican, I guess I would feel much more strongly about the Palin issue, though. But it's hardly a surprise paleocons are being vocal about hating Palin. She's an avatar of neoconservatism. So of course they hate her. They've always hated neocons ... even more than they hate liberals.

There's an old saying that the candle that burns the brightest also burns the fastest. IOW, the bigger a phenomenon it is, the faster we burn out on it.

Palin seems to be following a highly accelerated Batman trajectory. Those of us old enough to remember the campy TV show know that you couldn't go anywhere without hearing about Batman for a while, but then suddenly, almost overnight, it was over and all we were left with was this odd, quirky thing.

At least if you're in the right frame of mind, Batman can still be amusing.

Laura Bush doesn't think she's ready either, but that she's "a very quick study." (how many semesters did it take for Palin to get her BA?)

WASHINGTON (AP)  First lady Laura Bush says Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lacks sufficient foreign policy experience but is a very quick study.
In an interview Wednesday with CNN, the first lady remarked that it's fortunate that Republican presidential nominee John McCain has foreign policy experience himself.
Still, Mrs. Bush says she has a lot of confidence in Palin. She says the Alaska governor has a lot of good common sense, and the first lady adds that she is thrilled to have a chance to vote for Palin on the GOP ticket.
Mrs. Bush also said that she thinks Palin is being treated unfairly because she is a woman. That, the first lady says, is to be expected.

Laura Bush doesn't think she's ready either, but that she's "a very quick study." (how many semesters did it take for Palin to get her BA?)

WASHINGTON (AP)  First lady Laura Bush says Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lacks sufficient foreign policy experience but is a very quick study.
In an interview Wednesday with CNN, the first lady remarked that it's fortunate that Republican presidential nominee John McCain has foreign policy experience himself.
Still, Mrs. Bush says she has a lot of confidence in Palin. She says the Alaska governor has a lot of good common sense, and the first lady adds that she is thrilled to have a chance to vote for Palin on the GOP ticket.
Mrs. Bush also said that she thinks Palin is being treated unfairly because she is a woman. That, the first lady says, is to be expected.

Too late for her to do that. She doesn't know what a VP does ... still ...

Unless she can pull off something like "The evil media is using me as a distraction from looking at the issues" kinda crap and then disappears.

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i think shes done a great job of repeating everything the McCamp tells her to. Ive looked for her perch in interviews but apparantly shes quite happy just sitting on McCains shoulder squawking something about mavericks?

i think shes done a great job of repeating everything the McCamp tells her to. Ive looked for her perch in interviews but apparantly shes quite happy just sitting on McCains shoulder squawking something about mavericks?

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I have to admit when I first saw one of their campaign ads, I truly thought it was an Obama ad making fun of them.

i think shes done a great job of repeating everything the McCamp tells her to. Ive looked for her perch in interviews but apparantly shes quite happy just sitting on McCains shoulder squawking something about mavericks?

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Yeah, if your "talking points" consist of a few general slogans and lies about yourselves and your opponents, that's easy.

Hopefully, in the debate she'll have to show something else. We'll see. I wonder how many names of countries, capitals, leaders, she's studying. And the world map. That's before even understanding anything about the world. I certainly haven't gotten the impression she knows MORE about the world than the average American -- which is pretty little -- and could know less. I could be wrong, but she definitely doesn't know up to what she'll need to know. McCain himself keeps saying Czechoslovakia instead of Czech Republic. Then there's the economy, and basic national government that is separate from whatever she may have learned in Alaska. Then since she knows "more about energy than anyone in the US," she'd better learn a little bit about it. No wonder McCain's trying to move the Presidential debate to the VP time slot and make the VP debate TBA.

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